Coat of Arms with Lion and Rooster, c. 1503

Albrecht Dürer’s imaginary coat of arms is one of the Art Institute’s finest impressions, with a great delicacy of line and range of tonal values and textures. Though he produced a number of literal portraits as well as abstract family crests, Dürer’s over-the-top treatment of the flowing drapery, and the seemingly living symbols—crowing rooster, and lion rampant— on the crest and shield suggest the artist enjoyed taking a stale iconographic convention to its extremes.